Category: News

Olga Ternova, stage and art director of the Theatre na Zhukah, released the Shakespearean Twelfth Night on the big stage of the Academic Art Russian Drama Theatre of Mykolaiv.

The play made its debuts in honor of the International Theatre Day (March 29 and March 30). The cycle of premieres is scheduled to end on April 5.

The play is made as a romantic comedy with “theater inside a theater” elements, to convey the festive atmosphere of a masquerade, improvisation and quips.

All song are live and in keeping with the spirit of the Shakespearean theatre.

“A play about love, frivolous and funny and romantic, it is going to appeal to the people of every age. The production came out cheerful, colorful and spectacular, thanks to Olena Rykusova, the master who designed the striking scenery and costumes”, says Olga Ternova.

She added that this was quite a challenge that brought valuable experience.

“The production took two months, with two fully functional lineups trained. And these are not some fixed lineups – they tend to mix now and again. It was agreed tight from the start that each actor may interpret his character in his own way, with mixing lineups, the performers will be able to improvise, contributing to the play and getting a totally new outcome. This should keep the play alive and maturing over the time. Hopefully, the spectators would want to watch our version of the Twelfth Night again and again, because every time there will be something unexpected, something new”, says the stage director.

The production will make the play adaptable to just about any stage, even out in the open.
The initial reception was great and all premieres drew full house.

O. Ternova was invited as a production director by Artyom Svistun, the new theatre director of the Academic Art Russian Drama Theatre (Mykolaiv). Plays directed by O. Ternova for the Theatre na Zhukah earned the awards of the Mykolaiv festivals, such as the Southern Masks and Homo Ludens.

Olga Ternova, the Ukrainian director, staged yet another play in Paris, working in conjunction with En Details Theatre Company. On April 28, the stage of the Pixel Theater hosted the premiere of The Rehearsal of the Past after “Detalizatsiya” a piece by Dmytro Ternovyi. This is one of the first contemporary Ukrainian drama plays staged in France.

The producing director points out that, according to the comments provided by the spectators after the premiere, the play hit home.

“The Parisians would share their impressions, saying they know nothing about the events in Ukraine, because the European mass media are now focusing on some other countries. The play, however, makes them curious about what’s going on in our country. The goal of staging in France was to make people aware of the recent and the current events in Ukraine”, says O. Ternova.

She maintains that “The Rehearsal of the Past” is a totally new experience for her.

“This is the first time that I produced two plays in a row after the same piece – one in Ukraine and the other in France where I had to keep my mind totally clear from the Ukrainian production. The net result was to profoundly different plays. En Details has an absolutely different stage design, different costumes, background music, visualization, mise en scene, and even the number of actors and acts. Unlike the production in the Theatre na Zhukah, here we ran a video of true events on the Maidan, because our task was to promote the emotional immersion of the French audience in the atmosphere of what came to pass”, pointed out O. Ternova.

The play proceeds in the form of a rehearsal with the actors breaking into spontaneous, improvised dialogues between the acts. They would talk about what’s happening in Ukraine or share the latest news about their country. Incidentally, in addition to the French actors, there are two actresses from Ukraine, and they answer to the questions from the Frenchmen and share their emotional experience of the past and ongoing events.

Most of the work was done in 15 days.

“It took about half a year for the participants to learn their parts. The common table was held by Skype. But all directing was actually done in 15 rehearsals. Part of the time was taken by the training courses, to help my actors get the hang of my work system. The language barrier went down pretty fast. In just few days we would finish each other’s sentences. Theoretically, one would expect some cultural divide between the Ukrainians and the Europeans but in fact there was none. We said our goodbyes, willing to keep on working together in the future”, said O. Ternova.
After the April premiere, the next performance is scheduled for June. Early in January, O. Ternova and En Details released the French version of Dorothea, the play scheduled for staging in the Perekryostok (Crossroads) Theater in April-May.

Dmytro Ternovyi and Olga Ternova are the co-founders of the Theatre na Zhukah (Kharkiv, Ukraine). “Detalizatsiya” was written just a year before the Maidan and proved to be prophetic in many ways. In 2012, it was found to be the best play of the main drama contest in Eastern Europe “Talk about borders. Living in the age of change”, which opened way to the foreign audience. Translated into German, Polish and French, and staged in Austria, Germany and France, the first production of “Detalizatsiya” in Ukraine was made by the Zhuki in December 2017.

For more details about the event, visit the Website of the cultural and information center of the Ukrainian Embassy in France.

“Detalizatsiya” of the Theatre na Zhukah is chosen for participation in the International Festival “Melpomena Tavrii” – the most representative theater forum of Ukraine that celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

“Melpomena Tavrii” will take place in May 17 through May 26. Traditionally, it is held in Kherson but this year the organizers return to the format originally set by the first festival when the plays were presented in two southern cities – Kherson and Mykolaiv. Therefore, in addition to the Mykola Kulish Kherson Region Academic Theatre of Music and Drama, there will be two more stages this year in Mykolaiv: the Ukrainian Theatre of Drama and Musical Comedy and the Academic Art Russian Drama Theatre.

“Detalizatsiya” will be presented on the small stage of the Academic Art Russian Drama Theatre (Mykolaiv) on May 21.
“We have been dreaming of going to the Melpomena Tavrii for years, but every May there would be some project or the other, which we simply could not move. However, this year our theater celebrates its 10th anniversary and the festival – its 20th, so the stars must have finally aligned: we applied and passed the qualification”, says Dmytro Ternovyi, producer of the Theatre na Zhukah.

He went on to explain why the theatre picked “Detalizatsiya” for the festival.

“This is a new play. It only premiered in December last year. And it is a contemporary Ukrainian drama that has never been staged in this country until recently. Meanwhile, Melpomena Tavrii seems to be increasingly interested in contemporary drama arts. Then there is the topic – the play is about the events that happened in Ukraine not so long ago. We do hope the public and the critics will like it”, says D. Ternovyi.

Written in 2012 by Dmytro Ternovyi, the co-founder and actor of the Theatre na Zhukah, “Detalizatsiya” won the main drama contest in Eastern Europe “Talk about borders. Living in the age of change”. Translated into German, Polish and French, it has never been staged in Ukraine so far. After the premiere in the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe in 2014, the play had several readings in Austria. Written just a year before the Maidan, the piece proved to be prophetic in many ways. All of its acts are played in different genres and the actors play several roles, including the role of inanimate objects. The Theatre na Zhukah first presented “Detalizatsiya” in this country on December 10, 2017, dedicating the premiere to its 10th anniversary.

“Melpomena Tavrii” will host this year theaters from 12 countries: Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Israel, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Portugal, Germany, Belarus and Moldova. Over its history, the festival hosted 122 theaters from 16 countries. The record number of plays was staged last year – 35. This record is expected to be broken this year and the audience of the festival is expected to expand considerably.

The Theatre na Zhukah will bring it meditative play Ex Nihil to Zelyonka FEST – the international festival of modern dance and performance which will take place in Kyiv from April 16 to April 22.

Ex Nihil (Latin for “Out of nothing”) is an unusual production that is based on no literary material – it is all about the figurative and dramatic forms, with very few words uttered. The name is a representation of the approach to work when the action originates from the space, which many cultures refer to as the divine “nothing”.

Directed by Olga Ternova, the production is staged as a series of images that would draw the attention of the audience, as if in a kind of meditation where each would be able to experience one’s own, profoundly unique associative flow, thereby seeing one’s own – individual play.

Following its premiere in 2014, the play has undergone several revisions and keeps changing, to reflect new ideas and emotions related one way or the other to the times we all are living in. The play was staged in Krakow, Paris, Munich and Nuremberg.

Zelyonka FEST is the only international festival of modern dance and performance in Ukraine. Since its inception in 2010, it has brought over a hundred plays to the Ukrainian theatre enthusiasts. In April, the festival will present grand total of 18 plays – it’s all-time record. Choreographers and producers from Estonia, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Austria will present their projects.

Theatre na Zhukah, Kharkiv has turned 10 years.

In December 2007, in suburbs of Kharkiv, in a building of Ochag private grammar school, there appeared a small theater, a chamber hall for 46 spectators. Geographically, this is the most Eastern theater in Eastern Europe. It is located 30 km away from Ukrainian-Russian border. This project has fulfilled the lifelong dream of theater director Olha Ternova and journalist Dmytro Ternovy, who were the ones to found the theater.

The theater was constructed due to Hennadiy Khmelnytsky (Opta company) and Yevheniy Medresh (Ochag grammar school).

The Zhuki Theater started with its first performance “The Choice” from the play “Forget about Herostratus” by Grigoriy Gorin. The first night took place on December 16th, 2007.

In 10 years time, the director Oha Ternova has presented 13 performances both from classical (by Shakespeare, Beaumarchais) and from modern pieces (Sadur, Ternovy). She has also mounted a number of productions from original dramatizations of works that previously had not appeared on stage (by Cortázar, France, Vezhinov, Klyuyev). Since she started working in Theatre na Zhukah, Olha has directed a number of music and literary compositions and contributed to a variety of unique international projects that were shown at festivals in Ukraine and abroad. In all those years Olha Ternova has created an authors method of actors training and gained great experience in carrying out acting workshops for different target groups (Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Germany). Despite the non-commercial staging policy of the theater and the theater being geographically far from the city center, the performances are usually sold out from day one.

Being registered as an NGO, Theatre na Zhukah is known for its proactive stance and a number of initiatives aimed at alignment of Ukrainian and European theaters. In 2010-2012 the Zhuki were co-organizers of an international workshop-festival of “Hartenberg”, Czech Republic, which had been initially designed as a meeting point of different theater schools and cultures.

In 2011 the theater started a program “A Theater Window on Europe” in Ukraine. As part of it, representatives of different European schools conduct training for students of theater universities of different cities (Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Mykolayiv). Since the project was launched, 8 projects have been organized and supported by European institutions. As part of the project, Ukrainian students got to know the schools of Grotowski and Staniewski, commedia dell’arte, Lecoq’s physical theater school, documentary and musical theater, Georgian dance, modern opera art. Dmytro Ternovy is the program’s curator. After quitting journalism, he’s got known as a play writer. One of his plays has won a prestigious international drama competition in 2012. It was also staged and published in Germany and Austria, translated into several European languages, and awarded the best drama piece at “Calmius” literature contest in 2016.
The team took part in 14 festivals and 6 international projects in Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, awarded several prizes, including the silver and golden mask of “Masks of the South” festival (Mykolayiv), diplomas in different nominations at “East-West” (Krakow), “Zhyvi!” (Crimea), “Homo Ludens” (Mykolayiv), “Rampa” (Dnipro) festivals.
Traditionally, the theater celebrated its 10th birthday with a cheery actors’ party, which was as usual friendly and warm.

The Zhuki are preparing the third premier of this year from the play “Break Down” by a Ukrainian play writer Dmytro Ternovy. He will also be the one to play several roles in the performance.

The new performance appears by the theater’s birthday, which is celebrating its 10 years anniversary in December.
“Break Down” a play by the theater’s co-founder and actor, is known by winning the main European drama contest of Eastern Europe “Speaking about Boarders. Living at Times of Change”. It was translated into German, Polish and French but has not yet been staged in Ukraine. It first appeared on stage in 2014 in Germany, at Baden State Theater. Several readings took place in Austria.

Being written a year before the Maidan, the play predicted the future events in many ways. It consists of seven scenes (in some of them lifeless things act), most of them belong to different genres which is a rare case for dramatic works. The play is written for five actors, each of them appears on stages in several roles.

“Even though the play describes situations of private lives in a country close to boil over, the play tells a different story. This is a kind of “helicopeter view” on the current events. This is the only way to see the world view we created. And how fragile, absurd and completely ridiculous it really is. Without this insight, you can barely change it, even when you feel, its time for change”, the director Olha Ternova says.

There will be 7 people playing on stage, she mentioned, “both long term actors of the theater and the newcomers. This creates a lively and interesting ensemble”.

Premiere shows will take place on December 10th and 23th.

2017 was especially successful for the Zhuki: before “Break Down”, they had staged another two shows: “The Fog” by Julio Cortazar and “Amour de Trois or Two Exercises with a Pistol” from plays by French play writers.

The Kharkiv theater Theatre na Zhukah is working on the premiere of “The Fog” from the novel “Final Exam” by Julio Cortazar.

“Final Exam” by Julio Cortazar, one of his first novels, bases on Argentinean materials, unlikely most of his other works. “Final Exam” was written in mid-40-s in Buenos Aires after a military takeover lead by general Peron. A young writer, a teacher of French literature, took part in anti-Peron manifestations. His book could not be published because of the censorship. By that time, only the writer’s closest friends could read it. 

Later, after moving to Paris, Cortázar has applied for a literature competition, but he failed. So he decided not to show this text to anyone. It was only in his later years, when Cortázar, being severely ill, comes back to “Final Exam”. But the novel was published only in 1985 a year after the writer’s death.

“The novel’s destiny is unusual in itself, because it turned out to be a lifelong novel. Julio Cortazar is one of our favorite authors, and “Final Exam” is one of our favorite works. But still, we couldn’t think of staging it”, – the theater director Olha Ternova mentioned. She was the one to do the novel dramatization and the production.

“Still, the events in Ukraine that started three years ago reminded us strongly of the text by Cortazar’, – she mentioned.

“The associations were so strong we could hardly resist them. We couldn’t but think of “Final Exam’, so we came up with the idea to stage the novel. We tried to find the way with this work but due to different reasons, postponed the staging. But it is still relevant for us. I don’t know if it is good or bad. This production is a kind of aesthetic reflection of what we are experiencing today, this crazy life we’re living, where there’s still place for beauty, love and creativity, despite everything.  The only thing we may lack is a conscious attitude to the current events and our own experiences. And this performance is for the admirers of Cortázar, good music, good poetry and for creative minds. All of these are human needs no war can ever destroy. These things are important to me, and I want to speak about them with my audience”, – the director says. The timeline of the novel covers only two days of the protagonists’ lives. These are five friends: Clara, Juan, Anders, Stella, and Reporter who ramble around the city just before their final university exam. As typical for Cortázar, the real and the grotesque word collide inside the text and strange fog turns out to be one of the novel’s feature. Nobody knows where it comes from, but it keeps covering the city.

The play “39 or the Apocalypse Bus” was recognized as the best work in the nomination “adult drama” at “Calmius” literature contest.

The “Calmius” literature contest of Eastern Ukraine was carried out this year for the first time. There were more than 2000 applications of works in Ukrainian for it. 227 contestants have been chosen for the final. On December 11th-12th, in the city of Kramatorsk, they awarded the winners in seven nominations (the children’s and the adult poetry, prose, drama as well a political essays).

The play “39 or the Apocalypse Bus” reconstructs the ambient of a town on a border to the war zone, where the attempts of the people to hide away behind their day-to-day affairs get destroyed by external threats. The action takes place inside of a city bus which turns out to be an “unusual” one: it makes no stops, it keeps going faster and faster and the passengers cannot communicate with the driver. As a result, nobody can guess, where and when the bus goes and what they will find in the end of this crazy journey.

The play was finished in early 2015, it bases fully on Kharkiv events, many names and events are recognizable. Many conversations between the passengers have been painted from life.  “It is very emblematic that the play has won at “Calmius”, in the front-line city of Kramatorsk”, – Dmyto Ternovy mentioned.

There are 41 protagonists in the play, but the author says, “the theater makes everything possible, so it can surely be staged with a smaller number of actors”

The “Calmius” festival was designed as a de-occupation instrument for Donbass. The competition final turned into a literature and artistic festival with artists from all over Ukraine, which contained performances, workshops, presentations, book exhibitions, concerts. We expect a two-part “Calmius’ almanac to be published soon. It will contain all winning works. They plan for a presentation of the almanac.

Dmytro Ternovy is a play writer, co-founder of Theatre na Zhukah, curator of “Theater Window on Europe” project. “Calmius” is the second major contest where he has won as a play writer. In 2012, his play “Break Down” where the events on Maidan were predicted, won the major European drama contest of Eastern Europe “Speaking about Boarders. Living at Times of Change”. The play was published and staged in Germany and Austria, translated into German, Polish and French. Another play of his “The Harlequins” was shown in Theatre na Zhukah several years long.

In the framework of the project “Theatrical Window to Europe” the German director Christian Papke is coming to Ukraine on October 3-6. He’ll conduct master-classes for the students of opera departments in conservatories in Kharkov and Dnieper.

The topic of the training is the combination of solo arias with the onstage action. 12 students has been selected for the classes in both cities, most of them study in their third or fourth years.

The project will take place in the framework of the Days of German Culture in Ukraine. It is supported by the Nuremberg House in Kharkov and by the Consulate General of Germany in Dnieper.

“We met Christian a few years ago. We were impressed by his energy and openness towards Eastern Europe. This young director, the curator of two festivals in Germany and Austria, is very proactive. He puts on stage dramatic and operatic performances around the world. We are happy that he has responded to the idea to organize master-classes for students of opera departments in the framework of our program. We’d been considering this idea for quite a long time, because we believe that in some aspects the art of opera in Ukraine looks pretty archaic in contrast to European background. We hope that the master-classes will give students the opportunity to learn the practical tools that are used in the European theatres”, – said the producer of “Theatre na Zhukah” and the curator of the programme “The Theatrical Window to Europe” Dmitro Ternovyj

“Theatre na Zhukah” initiated the programme “Theatrical Window to Europe” in 2010. Its main idea is to entwine the Ukrainian theatre in the European theatrical context. It is aimed at the students of theatre institutes of higher education and gives them the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills. They have practical sessions with masters of different theatre schools. Theatre institutes from Kharkov, Kyiv, Lvov, Dnieper, Nikolayev are involved in this program. Earlier the projects were implemented with the Polish theatres (Grotowski’s and Stanevsky’s schools), the French theatre (Commedia dell’arte), Georgian theatre (Georgian dance), English theatre (documentary theatre) and German theatre (musical theatre).